Traction mechanism drives, such as endless belt or chain drives, are used for example in internal combustion engines of motor vehicles to transmit the rotational movement of the crankshaft to the camshafts or balancer shafts, or to drive various aggregates such as the water pump, air conditioning compressor, starter generator, etc. In order to ensure that the rotational movement is transmitted permanently and with as little slippage as possible, it is necessary to tension the traction mechanism during operation using a tensioning device.
In order to simplify the individual assembly, known in the earlier related art, of the individual parts of the traction mechanism drive on the internal combustion engine, in DE 10 2008 020 743 A1 a support unit is proposed on which the traction mechanism drive is situated with the individual parts pre-positioned in a manner that facilitates assembly. The traction mechanism drive situated on the support unit includes the traction mechanism itself, the chain wheels required for the transmission of the rotational movement, and a tensioning device that tensions the traction mechanism. The assembly of the traction mechanism drive is simplified using the proposed support unit in that, in a first step, all parts of the traction mechanism drive can be brought to the assembly location so as to be pre-positioned relative to one another via the support unit, in a second step the parts that are to be fastened to the internal combustion engine are fastened, and subsequently the traction mechanism can be pulled off of the support unit and pushed onto the parts fastened to the internal combustion engine. The support unit is then removed, which first requires the release of locking devices between the components for this purpose, so that the support unit can subsequently be removed using a tilting movement. Here, the support unit acts, in practical terms, as an aid to assembly by which the parts of the traction mechanism drive can be pre-positioned at the location of assembly in a position that is advantageous for handling during assembly.
In the prior art, solutions are known for preassembled traction mechanism drives, but these are often expensive both in preassembly and in installation.